Julia Unterscheider

Gay-friendly Vienna Julia Unterscheider

Today, multiplicities of destinations and enterprises consider the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community as one of their special interest groups such as youth, elderly persons, or ethnic groups. Gays and lesbians have an above-average level of education, are successful in their career, but most importantly, they are referred to as DINKs, which stands for ?double income, no kids?. Moreover, homosexuals have a high affinity to travel, as they undertake an average of four short trips a year where they spend twice as much money as their straight counterparts. However, gay travellers are still among the most under researched groups, and there is a severe lack of meaningful surveys due to the fact that this topic has yet to be widely explored. In addition, marketing the GLBT community is anything but easy, as homosexuals? diversity is complex. In order to address the GLBT community appropriately, destinations will need to further develop or even redevelop their GLBT brand by finding their preferred gay travellers that are most likely to visit the venue with respect to the offered attractions. Generally, this paper explores the potential of Vienna as a gay-friendly destination, but also its gay and lesbian marketing campaign by providing a theoretical framework followed by field work.